ASKING FOR IT

Detective Marsh Mysteries # 7

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Chapter 1 (excerpt)

"I can't believe this, I just spoke with him yesterday," said Captain Evanslooking down at the dead man's body lying on the floor. "I didn't know him too well, I usually talked with Maggie when I had dealings over at the Prosecutor's Office," remarked Detective Marsh, as he and his partner Sgt. Grew searched the body for clues. "Looks like two shots to the head, quick, simple and out the door," commented Grew. "Yeah, it doesn't look like a home invasion, can't see where anything has been disturbed, looks like nothing has been searched for or removed," said Marsh. "No Marty, this is personal, like revenge maybe," said Evans. "Guess we have to start searching all his recent cases, see if anyone made threats against him or did someone he put away just get released from prison." "You guys better get right on it, I'll let you know what the coroner has to say whenever he decides to get himself here!" said Evans. Marsh and Grew continued observing the crime scene, made a few hasty notes, then headed back to the Homicide offices. Marsh took off his jacket placing it on the back of his desk chair and tossed his keys into the top drawer. "Looks pretty bad I hear," commented detective Hobbs as Marsh sat down and reached for his phone. "Yep a bit professional looking if you ask me." "You didn't mention your hunch to the Captain," remarked Grew. "Bobby knew the dead guy pretty well, I didn't want to bring it up at this point, I'm just not buying into the convict revenge theory. It looks to have been really quick and cold, like the killer didn't have a penchant for having a discussion. A convict would want to let out all those thoughts he had saved up while in a prison cell, envisioning the moment in his head.At this point I'm going with a paid hit." "Someone reaching out from behind a jail cell?" asked Grew. "Always possible, which means we got hours of searching through Len Shapenew's cases." "Gosh damn, you're talking hundreds!" "We should do a list of recent releases on the first pass of the data base," said Marsh. "Get Hobbs and Greymor to give you a hand." The next morning when Marsh arrived at the Homicide offices he found Grew half asleep leaning back in his desk chair. "Too much partying last night!" shouted Marsh startling his partner. "I wish," chuckled Grew trying to focus. "After you left last night I decided to tough it out a few more hours to finish up the list of prisoners that were recently released. I had just completed it when a call came in, we decided not to bother you with it. It ended up taking most of the night. I got home around 3 AM getting only got about two hours of sleep before coming back here." "You should have called me, what are the details?" "We were notified that there was a dead body over by a high school, located about fifty feet up the street. The teenage boy wasn't moving. I went off on one of the patrolmen when I arrived on scene because when I checked the pulse I found the kid was still alive. We got him to the hospital but he's in a coma. I figured as I was already there I'd do the prelim report." "Any luck?" "No, the kids that found him had a bad case of CRS!" "CRS?" asked Evans walking up on the conversation. "Can't remember shit!" chuckled Marsh tossing his car keys into the top drawer of his desk. "Cute! Where are we at with the Len Shapenew case?" "I found two guys that were prosecuted by Len that were recently released from prison. I got a hold of one of them who did his full timeand now lives with a sister in California. He said he has no hostile feelings toward Shapenew. He admitted that he did the crime and now it's all behind him. Then gave me the phone numbers of somewitnesses that verified that he was working at the time of the murder. The other guy is local so I figured I'd get the Lieutenant here to drive me over to the house and have a talk with the guy," explained Grew. "Wrong!" said Marsh. "I'll go talk to this joker, you get your ass home and get some sleep." "Normally I'd protest, but I think I'll take you up on that," smiled Grew as he grabbed his jacket and shuffled out the office double doors. After checking his voice and e-mail Marsh made his way outside to the parking lot and after a fifteen minute ride through city traffic found the address of John Pines, recently released on parole after doing eight years on a twelve year murder sentence. "John Pines?" "Yes cop, what can I do for you?" "That obvious?" "Let's just say I know the look!" grinned Pines. "How is it after killing your wife you got out so early?" "It was heat of passion so the judge only gave me the minimum." "Heat of passion, you caught your wife in bed with another man but you waited four days to kill her." "I'm slow to react, I was in shock!" "What about the assistant prosecutor Shapenew?" "What about him?" "Did you have a slow reaction on him?" asked Marsh. "Nice try cop, but when that asshole got iced I was having dinner with my parole officer!" "Excuse me?" "He has a job for me and the only time we could meet up was that night. He's a bit jerky but not such a bad guy so we had some dinner. Before you ask, we went Dutch!" chuckled Pines. "Alright, I'll give him a call. Just watch your step!" "Seriously, I had a reason to kill my wife, that was the third time I caught her cheating on me, but that Shapenew guy, he was just doing his job, I get that." "Dumb question, why didn't you just throw her sorry ass out?" "I did love her!" Marsh groaned and slowly shook his head on the walk back to his car. He drove back to the Homicide offices, as usual he put his jacket on the back of his desk chair and tossed his car keys into the top drawer of his desk. "Any luck?" asked Evans as Marsh flopped into his high back leather chair. "Not really, I called his parole officer on the way back, he confirmed the story Pines told me." "What now?" "Next step has to be a look at the family, friends and relatives." "Hobbs and Greymor should be back soon from re-canvassing the neighbors," said Evans as he went back to his office. Marsh busied himself with emails, voice mails and the few odd regular pieces of mail left in his desk basket. "Hey Lt.," smiled Hobbs as he and Greymor entered the office. "Anything?" asked Marsh. "Got one witness," said Greymor. "She lives opposite from Shapenew. The night of the murder she remembered she had left her garage door open. She had brought the groceries inside and had intended to return to get some non-perishables she had left in the trunk, but got sidetracked then the family had dinner. She was in the process of locking down the house for the night when she remembered. So about 9:45 PM she went out into the garage. She had bought two of those new type deck chairs, they call them zero gravity chairs." "Gee, what color were they?" laughed Marsh. "Yes I know, too much info," chuckled Greymor checking his notes. "So she's having a time getting them out of the trunk when she hears two shots from across the street at Shapenew's house. She freaks and falls to the floor of the garage, I mean she is petrified, doesn't move for about twenty minutes or more. Then finally peersoutside and sees a white male, approximately thirty to forty, large build, buzzed head, getting into a dark Japanese import.No she didn’t get a plate nor could she ever recognize him in aface to face, it was just too dark."